Anaemia is a frequent finding in cancer patients and should be carefully assessed. Additional causes of anaemia such as iron deficiency, bleeding, nutritional defects or haemolysis should be corrected prior to erythropoietic protein therapy. The following recommendations are related to adult cancer patients with solid tumours or haematological malignancies:

The diagnosis of Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) requires that a patient be anemic and show laboratory evidence of iron deficiency. Red blood cells in IDA are usually described as being microcytic (i.e., mean corpuscular volume less than 80 um3 [80 fL]) and hypochromic, however the manifestation of iron deficiency occurs in several stages.

Two criteria must be diagnose AIHA: serologic evidence of an autoantibody and clinical or laboratory evidence of hemolysis. Serologic evidence of an autoantibody is provided by positive autocontrol and direct antiglobulin test (DAT, direct Coombs´ test) results and subsequent identification of an autoantibody in the RBC eluate and possibly the serum. Serum reactivity with autologous RBCs generally indicates the presence of an autoantibody, but it does not exclude the presence of an autoantibody.